For the masses who have learned to worship at the altar of Nürburgring's 12.9-mile Nordschleife circuit through video games like Gran Turismo, and even for the smaller congregation of drivers who have actually raced on the deified German road course, it's time to look south of the equator to a mystical mountain for a new spiritual awakening.

There's no denying that the 85-year-old Ring poses a mind-bending challenge; with 170 corners to memorize and period-correct safety measures, it's mentally exhausting and more than a little bit dangerous.

Its Antipodean rival is slightly younger at 73 and significantly shorter at 3.8 miles long, but when it comes to building fear and respect within its competitors, Australia's Mount Panorama, home to the famed Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercars event, makes turning a hot lap at the Ring look rather pedestrian.

"It's just an awe-inspiring place," admitted four-time SCCA Trans-Am champion Tommy Kendall. "It's 500-plus feet from top to bottom, most of the corners are blind, it's narrow and if you crash, you're either smashing into something at a silly rate of speed or tumbling down the mountain until you come to a stop. It's a high-wire act with no safety net at Bathurst."

As one of only 12 Americans to tackle Mount Panorama's 23 turns of Elevation Gone Wild, the quotable Californian not only survived his first and only race across the mountain in 1996, but managed to finish 8th, the best performance among fellow compatriots like three-time Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford and R&T contributor Sam Posey.

Kendall's diverse background as a driving champion and sports car all-rounder played a major role in his quick mastery of the production-based V8 Supercars. With 650 bhp on tap, downforce kept to a minimum and overtasked 13-in.-wide tires keeping 3300 lb. of Ford Falcon or Holden Commodore tethered to the planet, a deft touch is required from the cockpit.

Stretched across 1000 kilometers, Bathurst tasks its 28 entries with navigating the counterclockwise course for just over six hours. With more than a decade of experience in IMSA and Trans-Am to draw from, Kendall soon learned that no matter how much talent he possessed, controlling his Dick Johnson Racing Ford Falcon was the least of his concerns.

Attempts to control the mountain, however, would become an internal struggle of epic proportions.

"I never felt like I got the hang of the place, but it wasn't about not knowing the turns or how it flowed," Kendall explained. "I was always good at learning new tracks. Bathurst—at least if you're willing to go out there—can be a frightening place on the edge. Every track has a dangerous corner or two and you accept that. This place has just one or two that aren't dangerous. You have to will yourself—trick yourself, basically—to attack harder because the consequences of getting it wrong stare you in the face at every turn. It takes a pretty radical mind-set to be fast there."

Boasting European-style names for its corners, Bathurst has made legends of the men who've abandoned sanity as they start the climb up the mountain at Hell Corner, kissed the wall at The Cutting, knocked the left-side mirror off at Griffins Bend, yumped the car in 4th gear on entry to Reid Park, looked out onto the abyss at Skyline, danced on two wheels through The Dipper and started back down the mountain at Forrest's Elbow.

And the terror isn't over quite yet. The mile-long trek down Conrod Straight leads to the I-hope-they-put-Holy-Water-in-my-drink-bottle complex known as The Chase. As the relatively unknown Holden driver Fabian Coulthard found out in 2010, infamy and international acclaim await those who fail to exit The Chase as its designers intended...

Kendall was fortunate to avoid Bathurst's many pitfalls, but can't forget the harrowing experiences found throughout each of the laps that fell in the 2-minute, 10-second range.

"Once you get through The Cutting, you start building speed and building speed. McPhillamy Park is where it starts to get scary fast. And you're already going fast when you turn and head toward Skyline, and that's exactly what it is. It's like an infinity pool except it's the road. You're hauling ass on top of this mountain and as you get closer and closer, you don't see anything...the road is just falling away and all you see is horizon and sky. It's insane. Next thing you know, you're heading downhill forever toward The Chase.

"You keep rowing through the gears, and in those cars, the 6-speed 'box had pretty narrow splits compared to a Trans-Am car's, so you're winding the piss out of the engine flat in 6th. We were touching right at 300 km/h—almost 190 miles per hour—as we're turning in. You just kind of have to laugh when you think about it. I can't think of any place these days where even F1 cars turns into a corner flat at 190..."

Outside of the cars and corners, Bathurst's 160,000 attendees are renowned for turning the four days of track activity into a sustained bout of tribal warfare. With a single case of beer allowed to be brought in with each vehicle, the throngs of campers who blanket the sprawling facility are known for their creativity. Tales are commonplace of diehards making nighttime visits to Bathurst months in advance to bury their alcoholic treasures.

Like the feared "Black Hole" at the Oakland Raiders' NFL stadium, once the spirits begin to flow, Bathurst takes on the personality of an open-air juke joint. Throw in the building tensions between Ford and Holden clans, and by Saturday night, the UFC-meets-motorsports environment at Mount Panorama's peak isn't for the faint of heart.

"My team guys told me, `Hey, be careful wearing your Ford team shirt because it's pretty rough up there,'" Kendall said with a laugh. "Depending on your affiliation, coming back with the imprint of a beer bottle on your forehead was par for the course if you wandered into the wrong camping grounds. The whole Ford versus Holden thing really adds to the experience at Bathurst. Once you get the beer bottles flying, you know you're dealing with seriously passionate fans. You don't get that over here in NASCAR—just some drunken heckling, if you're lucky."

With the V8 Supercars set to race in America for the first time in 2013 at the rolling Circuit of the Americas facility in Austin, Texas, domestic fans will have a chance to see the thundering cars up close.

"The awareness of the cars here among the enthusiasts is pretty high," said Kendall. "Even for those who've never seen them before, I think they'll fall instantly in love with them. It's the perfect blend of high-tech stuff to make the cars appealing and sexy to those fans, and they're also brutish enough to pull in the NASCAR audience. Honestly, the V8s are just what Trans-Am should have evolved into, but since they didn't, for road racing fans, this is the next best thing."

The Austin V8 round is expected to feature a format similar to the Gold Coast 600 where the 28 V8 regulars are paired with guest drivers from the world of motorsports. With the strong likelihood of the Austin event being restricted to 28 high-profile drivers from various North American championships, a certain Trans-Am legend says he'll be ready to make his second V8 series start if asked.

"I'm in the gym every day getting back into fighting shape," said the retired Kendall. "If I get the call, I'll have to come show these kids today how it's done.... I've been meaning to go back and race Bathurst since '96, but Austin might just be the best place to make it happen."